


all of this silence and patience

by clnbd



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: F/F, Friends to Lovers, Post-Movie, i won't lie, rating because of a handful of curse words, this is entirely because i saw naomi scott in a baseball cap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22624453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clnbd/pseuds/clnbd
Summary: Kim takes their mandatory confinement to Angel Grove the hardest. Trini can see it in her eyes, can feel it like a punch in the gut on the worst days, when Kim can’t control it and it leaks into the connection they all share.
Relationships: Kimberly Hart/Trini
Comments: 22
Kudos: 264





	1. TRINI

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Taylor Swift's Dress.

i.

They graduate high school on a warm summer day in June. By July, Trini is at Powell Foods full time - working the checkout lane, restocking, mopping, and then doing it all over again.

She can’t leave. None of them can.

ii.

They train mostly on the weeknights that Jason doesn’t have work. There aren’t set days, but it’s fine because it’s not like any of them have anywhere to be. 

Trini works Monday to Friday from nine in the morning until five in the afternoon. She has a fifteen minute coffee break that she takes at ten in the morning every day and an hour lunch that she pushes until one thirty in the afternoon. Zack usually joins her for the coffee break and they sit in the parking lot - Trini on the fifth parking stop from the door and Zack on his bike in the spot - talking about everything and nothing all at once.

She and Kimberly take lunch at the same time, have been doing so since Kim started working as a receptionist at the dentist’s office down the block from Powell’s. Kim packs lunch for both of them and they sit on the grass near the water.

Kim takes their mandatory confinement to Angel Grove the hardest. Trini can see it in her eyes, can feel it like a punch in the gut on the worst days, when Kim can’t control it and it leaks into the connection they all share.

After work, Trini walks home. She has dinner with her family and washes while her mom dries. Her parents don’t ask her about her day.

iii.

Tuesday, in October. Kimberly doesn’t pack them lunch.

“I just - I couldn’t,” she tells Trini over the phone. It’s almost eleven, Powell’s is empty.

“Okay,” Trini says. “I’ll pick something up here for both of us.”

“No,” Kim’s sigh is heavy, Trini can almost see the slump of her shoulders through the phone. “Let’s - let’s get takeout or something. Try something new. Fish and chips?”

Trini bites the inside of her cheek. She wants to tell Kim fish and chips aren’t new - haven’t been new in a long time, maybe not since the Ranger thing. 

She says, “Sure.”

iv.

On weekends, Trini does chores around the house. She tidies her room, puts in a load of laundry, cleans the bathroom. She makes lunch for everyone. Sometimes pasta, sometimes rice. Always, her brothers pitch in and help.

Sundays mean church and a big home-cooked dinner by her dad.

And then it’s Monday and she does it all over and over again.

v.

Christmas comes and goes slowly like everything else.

Trini’s never been one for gift giving, but buying presents for her teammates at the mall comes almost naturally. She gets Jason the video game he’d eyed once while they were at the store together. Billy gets a new jacket, the same as his old one but without the rips and bloodstains. Zack gets Bluetooth headphones.

Trini gets Kim a gift card for the mall. She tries not to overthink it, tries not to write _here, you get to have a choice about your life for once_ in Kim’s Christmas card.

vi.

They get together at Kimberly’s while her parents are out of town for some conference a week before Christmas. Kim decorates. There’s a Christmas tree that Trini is almost sure Kim cut down herself. Lots of tinsel.

“I love it, Kimmy,” Zack says before he’s even fully stepped through the door. Trini feels Kim’s happiness before Kim gets a hold of it and turns it down.

Jason says, “Is that the tree that used to be on the corner of Reefside?”

And they all laugh and laugh and then Kim stops trying to turn it down.

vii.

“Do you feel Kim more than anyone?” Trini asks Zack one day in the parking lot.

Zack’s face scrunches up like he’s really thinking about it.

“No,” he decides after a while. “No, I can only really feel you all when I concentrate.”

“Me too, usually, but Kim - “

“Maybe try not concentrating on Kim all the time then.”

“What,” Trini says flatly.

Zack laughs like it’s the funniest thing in the world.

viii.

As if on schedule, the end of the world arrives in Angel Grove on a long weekend.

Trini is pissed and spends the majority of the fight thinking about her lost holiday. That is until Kim drops one of the gigantic reptilian creatures that had been hanging off the wing of her zord on Powell’s.

“Shit,” Trini hears her say through the comms. “Sorry, T.”

Trini is _delighted_.

Kim says immediately, “Oh my god, turn it down will you?”

And Trini doesn’t - _can’t_.

ix.

Powell Foods closes down indefinitely and Trini spends the better part of a week looking for a new job. She tries to think about it more, has to stop herself from applying to the opening at the fish and chips place. She needs something fulfilling. Something that doesn’t feel like she’s being held captive in a small town.

So she sits with Billy during the day at Krispy Kreme and scrolls through hiring ads on her laptop while he does homework.

“How is it?” Trini finally asks him when she can’t stand thinking about work anymore.

“How is what?”

“The community college.”

“Oh,” Billy says, putting his pencil down and folding his hands. “It’s too easy.”

Trini laughs, “You’re just brilliant.”

“Thank you,” he says seriously.

Trini smiles at him.

The next day, Billy hands her a crumpled piece of paper from the bottom of his bag. It’s an advertisement for a job at the Youth Centre. 

“It’ll be easy,” he says, flashing her a smile.

x.

Trini gets the job and almost everything in her life changes.

She gets to run programs for kids like her - kids lost in the margins, ones that never truly fit in or have to dull themselves down in order to. It’s challenging work, fulfilling work.

She sees herself in every one of them.

xi.

In August, they move out.

Zack’s mom gets better and she moves in with her sister in Washington, closer to a state-of-the-art treatment centre just in case. Zack can’t leave.

So he stays, gets a job at the mechanic’s with Jason, and looks into renting a dingy apartment on the other side of town. Trini hates its low ceilings and the musty smell of the air conditioning unit.

She tells everyone about it at training.

“Find somewhere else, Zack,” Jason says, unwinding the wrap on his hand.

“It’s this or the house on Mariner Bay,” Zack whines. “I’d need four roommates - four! Where the hell would I find that?”

Kim says, deadpan, “That’s funny.”

xii.

Trini’s parents take the whole moving out thing much better than she expects. They help her pack up her stuff and even drive her over to the house on moving day, unloading and unpacking her things without complaint. They leave with a wave and a smile.

On weekends, she visits. She cooks lunch on Saturdays and goes to church on Sundays. They have a big family dinner before Kim picks her up and brings her home.

xiii.

Living together is as easy as Trini imagines it would be for any group of people who always know how each other are feeling. Trini gets left alone when she wants to be. When she’s lonely, Zack comes into her room before she can even ask. Boredom almost always results in Billy appearing at her door, board game in hand. Sad gets her Jason. Any hint of pain and there’s Kim, barreling through the door like she does it without thinking.

Trini likes it, likes being with her people. She tries her hardest to return the favour. She drags her meditation mat to Jason’s room on days he feels particularly angsty, has rocky road ice cream always ready in the freezer for Zack’s bouts of deep, unsettling nostalgia. Any frustration from Billy and she jumps up at the chance to distract him from whatever project is causing it. Whenever Trini feels that gut punch feeling from Kim, the helplessness of being stuck going around the same circle, she crosses the hallway, knocks on Kim’s door, asks _what do you want to do today?_

xiv.

Trini knocks, says, “Kim?”

She feels secondhand butterflies erupt in her stomach.

“Come in.”

Kim’s sitting at her desk, eyes glued to her laptop. Trini can’t really make out what she’s reading.

“Jason’s at his sister’s ballet thing, Zack’s working, and Billy’s at someone’s house for a project,” Trini lists off, watching the line of Kim’s jaw. “I’m going to order dinner, what do you want?”

“Anything,” Kim shrugs and the ends of her hair curl a little bit at the movement. Trini tries not to notice.

“You have to pick, Kim.”

“Maybe I want you to pick,” Kim drawls, scrolling.

“I don’t want to pick something you don’t want.”

“I’ll want anything you give me.”

Trini freezes. She feels Kim’s entire body spark with _something_ and then -

“Sorry,” Kim says. The laptop snaps shut too hard, hard enough that Trini hears its hinges creak. “I was just reading, stuck on a concept.”

“About what?”

“This online class I’m taking at the community college,” Kim waves her hand as if to say _no big_. “Billy recommended it to me.”

“That’s really good.”

“Yeah, I like it. I’m - you know, trying new things and all that.”

They look at each other for a moment. Trini’s brain is stuck on _I’ll want anything you give me_.

Kim starts, stops, starts again, “How about Indian? I’ll cook.”

xv.

The thing is, Trini’s known for a while. And yes, it’s stupid and masochistic and a bunch of other things, but falling for Kim is also _easy_.

It was easy when Kim was all reckless intensity in high school. It’s easy now with this Kim, this determined woman with a live wire spark in her eye that she had to work so hard to get back.

So Trini pushes the feeling down but sometimes she revels in it, lets it amaze her.

Like now, watching Kim cook with her sleeves rolled up, the light from the open window softening her edges. Trini revels in it because Kim can change and shift and grow and the love is still there, fluttering uselessly in Trini’s chest.


	2. KIM

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day!
> 
> This is wayyyy longer than the first chapter mostly because Kim just talks more lol.

i.

Kimberly grows up in the air.

She’s in gymnastics and ballet and cheerleading. She gets used to being tossed, thrown, lifted. When she gets older she dives into pools and off of cliffs. There’s no fear in it anymore. Maybe there never really was from the beginning.

So she’s not scared when she gets into her Zord for the first time. Not scared when Trini looks at her one day and a feeling takes flight in her chest.

It takes a long time for her to realize that it’s a borrowed feeling. That she feels this love and yearning at the tips of her fingers and that the beating wings in her chest belong to Trini.

ii.

When someone is used to flying, telling them they can’t is like cutting off their wings.

Jason says _we’re Power Rangers_ and _we can’t leave Angel Grove_ and the whole thing peels Kim wide open because leaving it had been the only dream she’d ever had about this place.

iii.

Slowly, slowly, she recovers. It’s like getting hit in a fight. She takes it on the chin and falls to the ground, but she pushes herself back up, spits out the blood, and slowly, slowly, gets back on her feet.

iv.

“Does it get better?” Zack asks her one day while they’re hanging out in her room.

They all live together now in a typical Angel Grove home with cream coloured walls and popcorn ceilings. Kim likes it, amazingly enough.

Zack’s on his back on her rug while she lies on top of the covers, an arm slung over her head. They’re playing their favourite game of catch the egg. Kim likes it, too. There’s something fun about having to use a little extra speed while having to hold back the extra strength.

“Does what get better?”

Zack tosses the egg in her general direction, Kim cups it in her palm, slingshots it back.

“This coin is like an ankle bracelet,” Zack taps his foot against the side of the bed. _Tap_ , _tap_ , _tap_. Catch, throw, catch, throw.

Kim focuses on him, tries to reach across to feel what he means. 

“Yeah, it gets better,” she says, retreating from his sucker punch monotony. “Before we moved in, I used to feel it, too.”

Zack is quiet, egg in hand. He doesn’t move for so long that Kim looks over at him, concerned.

“You don’t feel it anymore,” he says, face scrunched. His movement resumes. _Tap_ , _tap_ , _tap_. Catch, throw, catch, throw. “I checked. Interesting.”

“I told you it gets better.”

Catch, throw.

Kim can tell he’s still mucking around in her feelings.

Catch, throw.

Zack says, curious, “Trini.”

Catch - the egg cracks in Kim’s grip and breaks open all over her shirt.

“Oh my god, Zack.”

Zack just laughs like he knows something she doesn’t.

“Tell me right now,” she says.

“I’m not saying _shit_.”

v.

Kim likes the business classes.

At first, everything is an adjustment. She has to learn how to research and create citations and write business plans. It doesn’t help that the community college’s library website looks stuck in 1998. There are days when she stays up until well past two in the morning because it takes so long to find anything.

Her back aches and her sleep schedule sucks, but she feels so fulfilled and _free_ after each day spent learning something that Kim starts to look forward to the grind of it all.

It had always been her favourite, the process. The tough cheerleading practices, the hours spent tumbling over and over again until her palms were bruised, Kim had _always_ enjoyed them. It doesn’t really surprise her that she likes this challenge too. The surprise is more in how much this challenge helps.

Yeah, some days it still feels like she’s been robbed of a future she can’t even imagine. There’s a part of her that will always wonder what she could have achieved, but choosing to do this, to put in the effort everyday so that she can build something for herself flips the switch in her brain.

Because Kim can imagine - in one of those hazy futures - choosing to be in the exact position she is, choosing to wake up and prepare so that she can do this work, beat this challenge.

It changes _everything_.

vi.

She goes to the football field with Jason and Billy one afternoon when she’s tired of studying. Billy brings a blanket and his phone. Jason dresses like he’s going to work out, complete with a football under his arm.

Kim doesn’t really know what her plan is, but she gives in and plays catch with Jason while Billy lays the blanket out underneath a tree. Jason gives her a list of patterns to run in and points out exactly when in each one he’ll be throwing the ball for her to catch. Kim thinks the whole thing is bordering on insane because she’s _alone_ out here and there’s no need to zig-zag but everything kind of clicks into place when she catches the first pass and Jason breaks out into this megawatt smile.

So Kim keeps doing it.

Jason’s arm flexes and twitches when he throws, like it’s all muscle memory. His movements are natural, his body hasn’t forgotten the joy that the action brings him. It makes her think about how much she misses the familiarity of cheerleading. Eventually, she works up the courage.

“Think you could toss me?” she asks, fully prepared for him to laugh and say no.

He holds his arms out as if to say _teach me_.

vii.

Kim comes home on a Wednesday to Trini face-down on the living room couch, an open can of beer on the carpet beside her limp arm. The beer is from Kim’s six-pack in the refrigerator. Kim, unsurprisingly, does not mind. She manages to steal a sip before Trini rolls over and tries to snatch it back with an annoyed grumble. The look on her face when Kim holds it up out of her reach is adorable.

The boys are out for the night and so they order a pizza to share and Kim cracks open two more beers. Trini watches a game show on TV. Kim watches her mouth the answers to each question before any contestant can buzz in. She also spends way too long looking at Trini’s lips.

“Genius,” she teases after Trini gets the final answer right. “Who knew you had such a big brain under all those hats?”

“Glad to see you’re back to being your annoying self,” Trini says, rolling her eyes only half-heartedly.

Kim hears what she means.

“I’m good, Trin, promise.”

“If,” Trini clears her throat, “if it gets bad again, will you tell me so I can help you?”

Trini’s stare is heavy, calculated. She’s looking at Kim so carefully that Kim just wilts right there on the couch.

“Yes,” she says.

viii.

They have to fight off a very large, very much made of magma giant a few weeks later. The whole situation gets dire very quickly. Both Zack’s and Trini’s Zords catch fire before the giant even takes any damage.

“I see a weak spot,” Billy says through the comms at the same time that Kim herself sees it. It’s a small spot on the giant’s chest. A sliver of rock where there should be fire.

“I see it,” she says, changing course so she can fly on a direct path to shoot.

“It needs impact,” Billy says very fast and Kim turns her head in time to see _his_ Zord catch fire.

She swallows, knows what he means.

“Kim,” Trini says in her ear, the static doing nothing to dull the panic laced in her voice. “No.”

Kim ignores her.

“Billy?” she asks, already toggling the switches to put her Zord fully on manual.

“It’s moving, so you can’t put it on autopilot,” Billy yells above the cackle of flames as he staggers out of his Zord. “Full manual means you can’t eject - _Kim_ \- “

Kim looks down at the entirety of downtown Angel Grove on fire. She knows what that feels like, can still recall the memory of her Zord getting licked by flames as she struggled inside. She’s not about to let anyone else experience that.

“I got it,” she says easily, ignoring Zack and Jason yelling in the background. Her visor slides back over her face. “I’ll eject after impact, no problem.”

“Kimberly,” Trini says. That’s all, just _Kimberly_ in this heavy tone.

Kim pulls on the throttle.

vix.

“Kimberly,” Trini again, right there, in her face. The familiar feeling of love unfurls in her chest and sparks run up her fingers.

“Hi,” she croaks. “All good?”

“Of course,” Trini smiles and Kim exhales audibly at the sight. “You broke your ribs, but yeah.”

Kim looks at her, catalogs the angle of Trini’s cheekbones, the arch of her eyebrows.

“Oh, and you kind of crash landed through Powell’s again.”

“Jesus,” Kim laughs and it hurts, but Trini’s answering smile is so very worth it.

x.

Zack is the first one to spot her when she heads downstairs for breakfast the next morning. He smiles from his spot at the kitchen counter and stands in his usual dramatic fashion.

“What’s that I hear?” he cups his hand against his ear and Kim laughs. “My! It’s Kimberly Hart’s music!”

Billy and Trini cheer and holler as Kim catches Jason in a headlock, playfully dragging him off his chair.

“She’s got Big Red right where she wants him,” Zack’s standing on the counter now, using his spoon as a microphone and fully committing to the wrestling announcer bit. “Pow! Pow! Pow!”

On her third fake punch, Jason feigns going slack jawed and the waffle in his mouth shoots across the room towards Trini, who ducks and boos.

“Oh and the crowd isn’t happy with Big Red. He hasn’t got much support now. Pow! He hits the ground, Kimberly Hart goes for the finish!”

Billy slides over on his knees and starts counting against the tile of the kitchen while Kim locks her elbow around Jason's raised knee.

“One!” he and Zack and Trini all yell at the same time. “Two! Three!”

Kim throws her hands up in the air in mock triumph before Jason drags both her and Billy down to the ground with him. Then Zack launches himself off of the kitchen counter and lands half on top of Kim and half on top of Billy. Kim registers Trini joining the pile as well and then they’re all laughing and cheering and making so much noise that she’s not sure anyone in Angel Grove can’t hear them.

xi.

A sea serpent appears on the coastline of town almost exactly a month after the giant and Kim has the front door halfway opened when Trini yanks her backwards by the belt loops of her jeans.

Trini’s barefoot, hair in a mess around her face. Her eyes are soft and it’s that careful stare that pulls Kim back more than the fingers at her belt. Trini puts a hand on Kim’s chest.

“No hero shit,” she says, her voice serious. “Promise me right now.”

Kim swallows, “Trini - “

“No.”

“I can’t promise that! If it’s a choice between dying and saving all of you or - “

Trini’s hand curls into her shirt, pulling her in. Their foreheads collide and their noses touch. Kim closes her eyes.

“You don’t get to pick that,” Trini says, her grip tightening.

Kim breathes, says, “Okay.”

xii.

Jason kills the sea serpent with his sword. He just cuts its head right off and it’s the most straightforward thing that’s happened to any of them since they became Rangers.

“Very Hercules,” Trini tells him.

xiii.

Life speeds by after that. There aren’t any new threats to Angel Grove for a while and so Kim gets to really focus on school and work and making sure that she pays her portion of the bills on time. She studies with Billy, runs routes for Jason in the park, plays egg catch with Zack, watches Jeopardy with Trini. It’s nice to have time to enjoy living with them.

In the spring, she labours through midterms. It’s a workout, a long grind to the finish. It’s something even Ranger strength can’t really help her with. The life of a student just sucks and there’s nothing except tests and assignments and studying. On top of it all, she has to think about _everything_ , like if she has time to finish her assignment by midnight if she also has training the same night or if five dollars on coffee will tank her monthly budget. By the time the semester is over, Kim feels like she’s run a thousand goddamn marathons.

To celebrate, Trini takes her out to dinner at one of the restaurants on the waterfront. They eat and talk and sit on the rocky beach afterwards. It becomes something they do, something Kim doesn’t have to think about but just _does_.

xiv.

She finds her bravery on that beach. _No hero shit_ , Trini had said, but Kim digs deep for it and finally unearths it while sitting on the rocks and listening to the sound of Trini’s voice mingle with the crashing waves. Trini’s talking about switching their internet plan over to a new provider but Kim doesn’t really hear all of it.

She tucks her hair behind her ear even though it’s pointless because the wind just undoes the action anyway. Trini stops mid-sentence.

“What?” Kim clears her throat. “I’m listening.”

“Nothing,” Trini mumbles, kicking at a particularly annoying looking rock.

The sun starts to set then and usually Trini says something like _we should go_ or _let’s go home_ but she doesn’t this time and Kim kind of hopes that she knows what’s coming, too.

“Listen,” Kim says, feeling like she’s getting tossed into the air. Sparks fly up her fingers. “I’ve been thinking.”

Trini just looks at her.

“There’s - we’ve danced around it long enough, T, don’t you think?” she smiles, ducks her head to meet Trini’s eyes. “I want to - I’m so in love with you that I don’t really know if I can feel you feel it too or if I’m just projecting - “

“You’re not projecting.”

Kim smiles so big that her teeth hurt. She grasps one Trini’s hands between both of hers, presses her lips to Trini’s knuckles. Anyone else and her grip might break bones.

“No?”

Trini shakes her head and Kim feels the familiar feeling start at the center of her chest, then it spreads, takes her breath away.

“Does that feel like projecting to you?”

No, no it doesn’t.

So Kim moves first. She moves first because she feels brave and because she _chooses_ to. She lets go of Trini’s hand, pulls a little at the neck of Trini’s yellow sweater so that they can get the angle right, and tips herself sideways and forward all at once until her nose bumps against Trini’s.

They’ve been this close before. Once while falling off a cliff together, another time at the front door of the house not so long ago. Kim’s hands shake.

Before she can hesitate, Trini is there, cupping her jaw and fitting their mouths together. Kim freezes for a split second at the feeling before her entire body sparks her back to action. She tangles a still shaking hand in Trini’s hair to pull her closer, keep her there. Trini’s lips are chapped from the sea air and she tastes like cinnamon and sugar and something Kim can’t quite name but now will never be able to live without.

Kim pulls back when she’s out of breath. Her pulse jumps in her neck and it doesn’t help when Trini’s thumb strokes over the skin there. She leans forward again.

Trini practically says into her mouth, “We’re going to get banned from this park.”

“I’m feeling pretty lucky today,” Kim replies, kissing her again.

xv.

“Your keys,” Trini calls after her one morning from the kitchen.

Kim - running late because of Trini’s amazing, _amazing_ mouth - swears under her breath and marches back to where Zack, Billy, Jason, and Trini are sat at the kitchen counter.

“Thanks,” she tells Trini, swiping the keys off the counter and leaning down to press a quick kiss to her lips.

Jason’s mug shatters in his hand.

“Jason,” Kim says, feigning offense and disappointment as she straightens up. “That was the _Number One Dad_ mug that Billy and I got you from the gas station.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
